Press Conference: The Concerned Coalition to Protect Prisoner Rights

The Concerned Coalition to Protect Prisoner Rights held a press conference on January 6th, 2011 to discuss the physical assaults perpetrated on inmates by prison staff. The attacks took place in the wake of fact finding visits by the Coalition to Macon State Prison and Smith State Prison, following last month's inmate led work stoppage that spread to nine of Georgia's prisons.

This piece includes interviews by Bruce Dixon of BlackAgendaReport.com with Edward DuBose, President of the Georgia Conference of NAACP Branches, Ajamu Baraka with the U.S. Human Rights Network, Chara Jackson with ACLU Georgia, Kenneth Glasgow of The Ordinary People Society, Charles Muhammad of the Nation of Islam and Hugh Esco of the Georgia Green Party.

Brave Soul: Marsha Ambrosius' "Far Away"

Brilliant. Timely. Brave. Necessary.

Brooklyn Boheme:Fort Greene/Clinton Hill Artists Documentary

From Nelson George:

I moved into Fort Greene, Brooklyn on Brooklyn Day 1985. I was already an established music critic/historian, but moving into this area in downtown Brooklyn would change my life just as would scores of other young black and Hispanic artists. The area already had a rich artistic legacy of going back to when Richard Wright composed much of his landmark1940s novel Native Son in Fort Greene Park. In the 1970s, just as white flight was changing Fort Greene's ethic balance, jazz musicians like Betty Carter, Cecil Taylor, Slide Hampton and Bill Lee were buying brownstones in the neighborhood. I was lucky enough to move into the area in the wake of another wave of jazz musicians, all in their 20s, were moving in with Branford Marsalis and (briefly) brother Wynton, the most famous of the bunch. Turned out I was renting a duplex around the corner from Spike Lee, a wanna be filmmaker I'd met once through a friend.

Spike's breakthrough film, She's Gotta Have It, not only put him on the map, but shown a spotlight on the community of young artists already there and made Fort Greene/Clinton Hill a magnet for emerging actors, musicians, visual artists and designers from all over the country. Rock star Vernon Reid, comedian Chris Rock, actress Rosie Perez, visual artists Lorna Simpson and poet/actor Saul Williams were just a few of the wave of talent that would be seduced by the beautiful brownstones and the feeling of artistic community. A vibrant spoken word scene would develop out of the Brooklyn Moon restaurant, while a group of female artists would form an influential avante garde theater group known as Rodeo Caldonia. I lived through all this, was inspired by it, watched my peers make great art and was saddened as both success and gentrification changed Fort Greene forever. With my directing partner Diane Paragas I'm making Brooklyn Boheme to capture the excitement and spirit of the brilliant artistic community I was so proud to be part of.

Support Brooklyn Boheme

Precursor: Attica!

http://www.deepdishtv.org The Attica Rebellion: On September 9, 1971 1,500 prisoners took over Attica Prison in upstate New York to protest conditions. 43 hostages were taken. The prison was held for four days. 43 men dies from police gunshot wounds in the retaking of Attica: 10 hostages, 22 inmates. Footage includes "Bloody Monday" September 13, 1971.

Don't Take The 'Ni**er Jim' Out My Story

The erasure of the word "N*gger" in Twain’s text, seems more an attempt to obscure the history that produced the word in the first place.

Don't Take The 'Ni**er Jim' Out My Story
by Mark Anthony Neal | TheLoop21

“Radio, don’t take the 'ni**er' out my song" -- R. Kelly, “I Wish” (Remix)

A few years ago, R. Kelly released a remix of his popular song “I Wish.” As the song comes to a close, he utters the above phrase. What might seem like an odd choice, in a song that essentially eulogized a dead friend, his mother and in some ways his innocence, was an attempt by the popular singer to acknowledge that the word “ni**er” has many meanings, and in this instance, it was a term of endearment directed toward a dead friend.

One wonders how Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain would feel about the current decision, by NewSouth Books to publish an edited volume of Twain’s classic The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, minus the word “ni**er” (it appears more than 200 times). Twain is recognized as one of the first great American writers, precisely, because he understood the role that vernacular language played in American society in the 19th Century -- and the word “ni**er” was a critical component of that vernacular.

In a society in which Black-face minstrelsy was the popular culture of the day and one could purchase a puzzle called “Chopped Up Ni**ers,” Twain’s use of the word “ni**er” to describe “Miss Watson’s big ni**er,” Jim, is absolutely reflective of the time that it was produced. Published in the United States in 1885, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, chronicles life in the Midwest, two decades before the emancipation proclamation.

But Twain’s use was more than reflective; he was also offering comment on the institution of slavery and its lingering impact in the years just after emancipation. As Jabari Asim notes in his recent book The N Word: Who Can Say It, Who Shouldn’t, and Why, “on many occasions Twain puts his most racist venom in the mouth of his most ignorant characters.” Twain needed the word “ni**er” to mock the system that would equate the word with the very limits of Black Humanity.

Read the Full Essay @ theLoop21.com

Retribution? New Charges of Georgia Inmate Beatings

from the Final Call

Ever since thousands of inmates in several prisons across the State of Georgia staged a peaceful strike to raise awareness about and forge a change in their inhumane living conditions and treatment behind bars, they have been retaliated against, according to a coalition that formed to support them in their quest for better treatment, access to loved ones, proper nutrition, and healthcare, among many other things.

During one of their visits, a fact-finding mission comprised of the Concerned Coalition to Respect Prisoners' Rights found that the inmates were fed bologna sandwiches for several days straight, and some of them were beaten, put in isolation cells, and many were transferred to undisclosed locations. The Coalition is reporting that there are more abuses and new charges of beatings, and they will appeal to state and prison officials for more access to the inmates.

The Coalition is scheduled to hold a press conference outlining their request in Georgia, tomorrow. Here's is the full press release, which I received moments ago. (Beneath the press release are the links to three recent articles I wrote and co-wrote for the Final Call regarding the strike, dubbed "Lockdown for Liberty!"

***

Concerned Coalition to Respect Prisoners’ Rights

For Immediate Release Contact: Elaine Brown, 404-542-1211

January 5, 2010 Leila McDowell, 410-336-7879

concernedcoalitionga@gmail.com

Find us on Facebook.com

Press Conference

THURSDAY, JANUARY 6, 2011

10:30 a.m.

Georgia State Capitol

206 Washington Street

Atlanta, Georgia

NEW CHARGES OF INMATE BEATINGS

Reports from Prison Visits

Set Off Coalition Appeal to DOC and Governor-Elect for More Access

The Concerned Coalition to Respect Prisoners’ Rights, formed to support the interests and agenda of thousands of Georgia prisoners who staged a peaceful protest and work strike initiated early last December, will host a press conference this Thursday. The mothers and other family members of Terrance Dean and Miguel Jackson, inmates reportedly brutally beaten by guards at Macon State and Smith State Prisons in connection with the strike, will be in attendance.

The press conference follows reports of violent abuses of these men and others and the findings of fact by Coalition delegations after visits to two prisons in December. These reports have increased fears of the targeting of and retaliation against inmates on account of their peaceful protest for their human rights and raise the urgency for immediate reform.

“These new developments have increased our fears and our legitimate call for more access to inmates,” said Elaine Brown, Co-Chair of the Concerned Coalition to Respect Prisoners Rights.

Ed Dubose, Coalition Co-Chair and president of the NAACP of Georgia, stated, “Family members are frantic and mothers are crying and anguished after learning their loved ones have been badly injured. We cannot allow those cries to go unanswered. Since the start of the December 9 peaceful work stoppage and appeal for reform and respect for human rights, some inmates have been targeted and others have simply disappeared. We are urging the Department of Corrections and Governor-Elect Nathan Deal to act now to halt these unjust practices and treat these men like human beings.”

Black, brown, white, Muslim, Christian, Rastafarian prisoners, including those at Augusta, Baldwin, Calhoun, Hancock, Hays, Macon, Rogers, Smith, Telfair, Valdosta and Ware State Prisons, joined a peaceful work stoppage December 9, 2010, refusing to come out of their cells as part of a petition to the corrections department.

Among concerns expressed by inmates were not being paid for their labor; being charged excessive fees for basic medical treatments; language barriers suffered by Latino inmates; arbitrary, harsh disciplinary practices; too few opportunities for education and self improvement; and unjust parole denials.

Coalition leaders attending the press conference will be Mr. Dubose, Ajamu Baraka of the U.S. Human Rights Network, Pastor Kenneth Glasgow of The Ordinary People Society, Chara Jackson of the ACLU of Georgia, along with Abdul Sharrief Muhammad of the Nation of Islam.

The prisoners have been petitioning the corrections department for their human rights, including wages for labor, decent health care and nutritional meals, a halt to cruel and unusual punishments, and an end to unjust just parole decisions.

Medical Neglect in Georgia Prisons?

Medical Neglect Stalks Georgia Prisons
by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon

Arnold Porter was serious, and seriously worried. He was dizzy and short of breath, he told Dr. William Sightler, with a crushing, tightening sensation in his chest with pain shooting up once side of his neck. “Maybe I have a clogged artery. This is not my normal health,” he told Dr. Sightler. “Please help. I need something fast done.”

Slow motion heart attacks, in which symptoms leading up to full cardiac arrest build and worsen gradually over weeks or months are quite common. Porter should have been a lucky man, being able to bring his heart attack symptoms into in a physician's office, except for one thing. Porter was a prisoner at Georgia's Wheeler Correctional facility, operated by the notorious Corrections Corporation of America. And William Slighter was their doctor, not his.

According to a complaint filed in US District Court in Dublin Ga, Porter repeatedly and insistently sought medical aid throughout the month of December 2006, informing Dr. Sightler and a prison nurse of his symptoms, and urgently requesting some kind, any kind of diagnostic treatment for his chest pain, shortness of breath, profuse sweating and the other classic markers of cardiac disease. By December 29, the complaint states, Porter's symptoms were well documented in his file, but the first appointment with Dr. Sightler was delayed a full 35 days. It was at this appointment that Porter stated he thought he might have a clogged artery, and asked for help.

Dr. Sightler, Nurse Newcurt, and the prison's Director of Nursing Carolyn White, the complaint alleges, did nothing. Wheeler is a privatized prison, run by a highly profitable corporation. Private prisons, as well as publicly-run prisons with privatized medical care have built-in reasons to skimp on diagnostic testing and all kinds of care. Medical care costs money, and they're in business to make it, not to spend it.

Read the Full Essay @ Black Agenda Report